


And there he comes

by alandofwords



Category: NCIS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22754980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alandofwords/pseuds/alandofwords
Summary: After nearly dying, Nick thinks that there is no right time to confess his feelings to his coworker, but before doing so he decides first to share his fears, doubts and thoughts with three important people.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres, Ziva David & Anthony DiNozzo, Ziva David/Anthony DiNozzo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	1. Nick/McGee

_“Tell her how you feel, you wuss.”_

It had been two months since Ziva David whispered these words in his ears, two months since she left him with billions of questions in his head and two months since he had not closed his eyes for more than four hours a night.

If he were to be honest, Nicholas Torres knew that he had had feelings for his coworker for at least three years now. At first, he had tried to ignore them, he pushed it all away and never let anything show to anyone. The timing was never right for them and when he had finally assembled some courage in him, Jimmy had blown it all. He did not know what to think after their conversation. It had seemed to him that he and Bishop had something ever since they met and that it was pretty obvious especially since Ziva pointed it out, twice!

That is why he decided that today would be the day in which he would start digging deeper into things. Almost dying a few weeks ago made him think about things in a different way, he did not want to have regrets. It was one of his greatest fears, not doing something and regretting it but not taking opportunities and chances when he definitely could have. Nick always prided himself on being fearless.

He had a plan. Not a real one though, he just needed to do a few things before telling her everything. He knew she would have a lot of questions and just imagining how her eyes would look with the thousands of thoughts, made him smile.

As a start, Nick found himself in front of McGee’s apartment front door on a Saturday night. It was already past eleven and he had texted his friend hours before to let him know that he wanted to meet. McGee had responded saying that he was welcome to come later on that night when his children would be long gone in their bed so that they can have all the time they needed. However, Nick ended up sitting in the living room with Morgan and John both in his lap talking to him about their latest adventure in a magical forest with lots of trees.

Nick had no choice but to listen to them for forty minutes until their father interrupted their long monologue when he was about to fall asleep.

“Sorry Nick,” said McGee coming back to sit on his couch after pulling both to their room “We’ve been dealing with this for two weeks now. It’s like they don’t get tired anymore. I thought taking them to the park and playing for hours would exhaust them but I feel like it only made things worse.” McGee had dark circles under his eyes which he was rubbing as if fighting the urge to close them.

“You know, I can come back later if you... um... if you are too tired” he was suddenly unsure of what he was about to do and if he had a way out, he would most definitely take it.

“Nah, I am good. Delilah is taking care of them right now, also you’re already here. So... go ahead”

Nick was nervously playing with his hands, he wanted to do this but did not know where or how to start. Surely, McGee had noticed things and he may have kept them to himself. But what if he actually did not and started laughing at him, what if like Jimmy he would say that unlike Tony and Ziva, there was nothing between him and Elly.

“Euh Nick, what is it?”

He looked at him for a second before finally letting out three words in a whisper, “It’s … umm Bishop.”

“What about her?”

 _What about her?_ He freaking loved her and was scared to death to ruin everything by saying the words out loud. Why could not life be so simple? He would have given anything to be with her right now and not anywhere else, to be able to tell her all of this without jeopardizing their jobs and their lives.

“Oh, oooh! I see now” McGee started laughing “It’s about the TALK.” he said holding his stomach he was almost historical now. “Oh God! I am... so.. so... sorry.”

“Okay I see that this was a bad idea,” said Nick while standing up and aiming for the door.

“No no wait” McGee was clearly trying to control himself. “I am so sorry, it’s just I knew this was coming but I wasn’t expecting for it to happen now”

“What do you mean by ‘knew’?”

“It’s clear that you two have feelings for each other and Ziva shared her doubts with me a few weeks ago. She said we should give you some time and then you would be knocking at my door for help.”

“Wait... you knew?”

“Everybody knows Nick, except for you two obviously. And I have already been through this once, I wanted to give you a push because there was no way I was going history repeat itself. But then … all of us agreed that we should let things happen on their own before interfering.”

“Us? As in you and Ziva?”

“Well yeah and... yeah us.”

“But Jimmy said...”

“Jimmy is just scared that all of this would be a Tony and Ziva fiasco again. Believe me, it’s hard on us. So whatever he said it just came out differently from what he actually meant.”

Nick was still standing at the same spot, his eyes fixed on the red and white carpet on the floor. His mind trying to process everything that was just said. He did not only just admit to McGee that he had feelings for their coworker, but his friend had also confirmed his doubts.

“So why didn’t anyone say anything? I mean except for Ziva.” he asked.

“Ziva said something?”

“Yeah well, I didn’t let her win a fight just like that.” He laughed “and she mentioned something again when leaving.”

McGee let out a little smile remembering how Ziva had been so eager to do something about these two because of how they reminded her of her and Tony.

“Look, Nick. I don’t know what you want me to say. Are you here to get my blessing or something? Here, do whatever you want, just for God’s sake don’t make me relive all this again. Once was enough. Tony and Ziva went through a lot before getting to where they are today, people died Nick, they broke each other’s hearts and there were so much pain and angst. If you are really sure, and only you can be, do it." He paused for a second and reached out for a piece of paper and a pen, " I’ll give you this number and call it when you are ready,” he said writing down a series of numbers. “You need to figure out if it’s all worth it for you.”


	2. Nick/Ziva

Nick dialed the number the next morning. He knew to whom it belonged the second McGee gave him the small piece of paper. He had realized from looking at the first digits that it was a French number and there weren’t a lot of people that he knew who lived in France.  
“Hello.”  
Ziva answered on the third ringtone, sounding out of breath. However, Nick could easily sense something different in her voice, it was cheerful. He thought about everything he had heard about her until now, how ruthless and always on hold of her emotions she was, but he could tell from her tone that she was happy but also happy to show that she was it, and he wondered if he would ever feel that too.  
“Is anybody there?” she asked when he had not answered yet.  
“Hola Ziva!” a smile on his face as he spoke the words, happy to be able to share this with her.  
“Nicholas! I have been waiting for your call. Wait, give me a second.” She said before hanging up on him.  
He looked at his phone for a few seconds, wandering what had just happened, before it lit up again with a request for a video call. He clicked on the answer button after passing his hands through his hair, Nick Torres must always look good in all circumstances. The screen showed Ziva trying to find a position for her phone on some table.  
“Sorry Nicholas, I am just doing some laundry so you will have to bear with me.”  
“You know, I can call later.” He almost hit himself when saying these words, what was it with him trying to find escapes whenever he came closer to his goal.  
“Haha nice try my friend. But … um .. I can do both. So throw, what it is going on this head of yours, or shall I say heart?”  
“Throw what? Oh you mean shoot. Well, you know just checking up on you. How is Paris? And Tali? Did it go well?”  
“Very good. It has been two months now, and I am still adjusting. Some days are hard, very hard but Tony has been perfect. It is getting better, do not worry. But you are not calling for this, am I wrong?”  
Nick looked at her folding a shirt, her gaze on the task and nothing else as if it were the most important thing she was doing.   
“Nah, you are right. I am sorry though, I should have checked up on you earlier.”  
“It is okay. I have not been an agent in years but I remember it being a very time-consuming job.” A slight smile was drawn on her face.  
“Yeah, we had a lot of cases and then I was on an accident. A car rolled over me. It’s actually kinda funny if you think about it, I wanted to jump on it. Can you imagine? But don’t worry” he added when he saw her eyes fill with worry “I am okay. Not one hundred percent okay, but I am getting there.”  
“I am glad to hear that. You should take it slow and this is coming from me.”  
“I am taking it slow, it’s not like Bishop is giving me much of a choice.”  
“And there we are. This is why you called, right? To talk about her?”  
He looked at her as she emptied her hands and sat down before fully focusing her eyes on him. He did not need to answer her question, the purpose of his call was pretty obvious.  
“Let me tell you a story,” she started “the story of a man and a woman who fell for each other the second they met. At first, they did not know what it was. They were so different and she was very scared. She had just lost her brother and moved across countries. She had never been in love before and did not believe on it much, but the man was kind and funny. He always knew what to say to make her laugh and it just felt so good to be around someone who could give this much without asking for anything. The job was hard and the numerous missions made things too complicated for them. The timing was never right, but the thing is that it will never be, and they did not know that. They kept waiting for the other to make the first step for so long, and in the process, they hurt each other and so many other people. It could all have been avoided if one of them had been a bit braver and smarter. There was always so much going on and never time for them to finally explore what there was. If you keep waiting for someone or something to happen, you will never get out of this loop. If you love someone, tell them, life is too short to wait and dwell on thoughts.”  
When he had not said anything yet, she added with a smile to light up the mood “This is coming from the woman who died twice.”  
Nick chuckled, he knew she was right, life was too short. He let himself think about everything that could happen if he did not say anything if he chickened out and never told Bishop how he felt. He saw her in a white dress, in someone else’s arms, laughing, her blonde hair falling on her shoulders. He saw himself, a drink after another, until passing out on his couch in the loneliness of his living room. Was it all his deserved after all?  
“I know what you are thinking.” Ziva interrupted his thoughts, “You think that you deserve the pain. That being alone and lonely for the rest of your life is the price that you have to pay for everything that you have done. You think that you do not deserve her love, that she is too good for you. You think that you are a bad person and that you are doomed to pain and sorrow. I felt like this too, and do you want to know where it took me? I was away from the man I loved for six years and three years away from my daughter. I do not wish for you to suffer like I did. It is too much to handle even for the strongest of us. Now tell me, what is your plan?”  
“A plan?”  
“Well you are not going blindly into this, are you?” she asked.  
He thought about it for a second, he did not really have a structured plan. He had the attention of talking to some people, figuring out some things before making a move. He wanted to convince Elly that it was going to work out but he had not decided of how it was going to work out.  
“Look, Nicholas. We both know how an anxious person Bishop is, you will need to be clear about your intentions she has already been through her fair share of losses from what heard. Look, I can assure you that she cares about you deeply, you just need to show her that you do too” when Nick was still looking worried, Ziva finally understood what was worrying him “Bishop is not the problem, Gibbs is”.  
Nick met her eyes finally. He knew about Gibbs’ rules but he didn’t want to leave the team. It was his favorite thing in the world, working around these people every day. Saving the world in their own way, helping others… it gave him some satisfaction, it made him feel useful. Of course, he could do that with other people, but Nick had never felt like he belonged somewhere before working in this team and he knew deep down that he would never feel the same anywhere else.  
“I will take care of him, you focus on Bishop and yourself”.  
"I need to talk to him too."  
"Yes, and you will. Just don't worry about anything, it is all going to be alright. Also, I am expecting a wedding invitation before the end of the year" she said before hanging up.  
Nick smiled and leaned back on his couch wondering what his next step might be.

***

Sorry everyone for the delay, I was so busy with so many things and I had forgotten my password for this account. I hope you are all doing great!!! Take of yourselves!


End file.
